Mitch,
I quickly looked over your system to include your listening environment. Your environment and system will allow for audible improvements to be heard more than my environment and system. If I can quote from your system thread -
"After 90 hours or so I realize that my Hales are in a completely different league than they used to be. They are now a much better cleaner bigger sounding speaker.The sound is so clean that I can play music loud without getting fatigued. At low levels the sound is bigger sounding than it was before at the same volume. The sound stage is wider from side to side and from front to back. What comes to mind is "like a tricycle to a Harley"
The vocals have opened up in such a way as voices take on a much larger space in my room being more realistic sounding. The bass is deeper and more pronounced without boominess. The highs are sweet and the midrange is smooth. This is only after 90 hours. It will improve more over time. I can only imagine but I will hear in time what the final results will be. I've heard horror stories of peoples faillures with crossover mods so I consider myself very lucky to have done it with good results.
With a little over 300 hours on my speakers with the crossover mods the sound is really beginning to open up. The sound is also becoming sweeter and sweeter.Ic do not regret modding the crossovers. I have a much better speaker in return."
What you describe is exactly what I heard from upgrading my speaker crossover networks. I would add that the cost, at least for me since I do all my own work, was a very small fraction of just a single pair of IC's. Also important to note is that upgrading the capacitors and resistors doesn't impact system synergy. Some people prefer certain cabling to use with certain equipment. Caps and resistors don't care, they just improve the sonics.
Price/Performance is clearly in favor of upgrading the electronics vs. the cabling. The cabling does improve things, I agree, but dollar-for-dollar the simple swapping of capacitors and resistors is a winner.
I'm now in the process of upgrading all the capacitors in my EAD CD-1000 mkIII and can't wait to hear the results.